The father of an engineering student who was beaten to death at his university halls in Bangladesh has demanded justice for his son, as protests against politically motivated attacks on campuses continued.
Abrar Fahad, 22, who was allegedly targeted after he criticized the government on Facebook, was found dead at his university halls of residence in Dhaka on Monday.
It is claimed that he was attacked by students linked to the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), an influential student wing of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.
Photo: Reuters
Barkat Ullah, Fahad’s father, said his son had hoped to study a doctorate and wanted to serve his country.
“The university administration has to take strict measures to stop such incidents,” he said. “They should know what’s happening inside their dormitory. They have to hold them accountable. If they can do that, then maybe these kind of incidents will stop happening.”
Fahad’s death has caused outrage across the nation, prompting protests by students at universities in Dhaka, Chittagong and Rajshahi, and demands for authorities to clampdown on political violence on campuses.
Human rights groups have condemned groups such as the BCL, which have been accused of beating student protesters and stifling debate.
Last year, students who had launched a protest calling for greater road safety were beaten with sticks and machetes in attacks widely blamed on the Awami League and its youth wing.
Authorities took no action against those carrying out the violence, but instead detained the protesting students, Human Rights Watch said.
A first-year student from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka, where Fahad was studying, said students did not feel safe in the halls of residence.
“We never speak freely,” he said.
Fahad was in his second year at the most competitive university in the nation, where he was studying electrical and electronic engineering.
Friends said he was attacked because he had written a Facebook post criticizing deals signed during Hasina’s visit to India.
They included controversial deals on water sharing and on exporting petroleum gas to India, which many argued were not in the nation’s interests.
According to an autopsy report, he died of severe internal bleeding from beatings with blunt objects.
“Fahad was a very simple person. He had a naive mind. My son, he wanted to go abroad for higher study,” Ullah said.
Amnesty International described his murder as a “horrific crime that must be investigated immediately.”
“Abrar was only exercising his peaceful right to freedom of expression in his Facebook posts criticizing the government,” the human rights group said in a statement.
Hasina has promised justice to Fahad’s family. At least 11 students have reportedly been arrested in connection with his murder.
Hundreds of students and teachers on Wednesday took part in a silent procession at Fahad’s university in the capital.
A second student at the university, who also wished to remain anonymous, said that the humiliation and beatings of students had been repeatedly ignored.
“The ragging [bullying and beating] has always been a massive problem. For many past incidents, we reported them to authorities, but they never took any serious action, and this was a result of their negligence,” the student said. “The perpetrators never thought they’d face any consequences. It’s a shame that someone has to get killed to bring the issue under [the] spotlight.”
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
RSS